Sky 1483MER

[admin]

We have had a few enquiries regarding support for MAC Encapsulated Routing (RFC 1483 MER) on Billion routers.

This seems to be what Sky broadband is slowly rolling out but unfortunately we don't have a Sky connection and cannot verify if our routers can support it.

Purely from the specification, we have checked with engineers confirming 1483MER support on 7800 series.

However, some of you have reported 1483MER is not working with 7800N on a Sky broadband line so we are hoping to start a discussion on it.

Not much information on Sky's 1483MER we have found so any information regarding settings from their Sky box using 1483MER will be very useful.

Anyone with Sky 1483MER line had any success with non Sky routers?

[andyjrobinson]

Hi,

I could have tested this about a month ago, had I known you were wanting to investigate it properly.

However, if it is of any use, I can send a Sky D-Link DSL-2640S router to the UK office with the latest MER-enabled firmware to you if it will help with the investigation.

[andyjrobinson]

Also,

If anyone is with Sky Broadband and your router has upgraded to the 2.04 firmware, which enabled MER connection, try the following in your Billion or other 3rd party router.

For now, I think this will work with MER, as the IP address is dynamic, but the IP address assigned rarely changes, or has a long lease time from Sky for now. So you will need the IP Address, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway and DNS servers from connecting your Sky router, taking note of them, then re-connecting your Billion.

• Profile Port: ADSL
• Protocol: MPoA (RFC1483, Multiprotocol Encapsulation over AAL5)
• Description: [Anything You Want]
• VPI: 0
• VCI: 40
• Encap. Method: VC/MUX
• NAT: Enabled
• MAC Spoofing: WAN MAC address from Sky router
• IP: As Sky router
• Netmask: As Sky router
• Gateway: As Sky router
• Obtain DNS: As Sky router or Google Primary: 8.8.8.8 Google Secondary: 8.8.4.4

If you want to try Dynamic method, just leave the IP Address set to 0.0.0.0.

If this does not work, you can always still use the PPPoA connection method, until the revoke PPPoA access to the network.

Please let me know if this helps you out.

Also, please note that as per the Sky Broadband Terms and Conditions:

Sky Broadband must only be accessed via your Wireless Router. Your Wireless Router is not supplied as being capable of being used to access any other Internet service.

Therefore accessing the Sky Broadband network by means of any other router other than a non-Sky provided router is a breach of your contract and can be punished by Sky if they feel fit, even though I have never had any problems using non-Sky routers in the past, that does not mean that you will not.

[admin]

Hi,

I could have tested this about a month ago, had I known you were wanting to investigate it properly.

However, if it is of any use, I can send a Sky D-Link DSL-2640S router to the UK office with the latest MER-enabled firmware to you if it will help with the investigation.

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the offer! I think if you don't mind taking a few screen shots of the WAN settings pages on the Skybox then it should be enough for the time being. That's if you have managed to access the WebGUI on the Sky router.

[AndyCap]

At the moment and although my Sky exchange is using MER it also uses the old ADSL system but I also want to spoof the MAC address from the Sky router to the Billion router but cant see the option to do it so is there one?

If not can I edit a saved cfg file and import it back with a spoofed MAC as that is how I did it with a DG834GT.

Thanks

[billion_fan]

At the moment and although my Sky exchange is using MER it also uses the old ADSL system but I also want to spoof the MAC address from the Sky router to the Billion router but cant see the option to do it so is there one?

If not can I edit a saved cfg file and import it back with a spoofed MAC as that is how I did it with a DG834GT.

Thanks

Yes there is a MAC spoofing section but you need to select MPOA as the protocol for the WAN settings. Then go to 'Advacned >> Configuration >> WAN >> WAN Profile, and you will see a Mac Spoofing section. Once entered, click on 'Edit/Delete' to apply the change, save the config, and restart with current settings for the changes to take effect, but as others have stated they can't seem to get MER authenication to work.

I don't think any non-offical sky routers work with MER authenication on a Sky line, but I might be wrong.

[AndyCap]

Yeah I have seen and done that but what I want to do is use normall ADSL but spoof the MAC of the router to that of my Sky router and not use MER.

Someone else over at Skyuser told me the same as you did but when I had an ADSL setting and then tried to set up MPOA I had a protocol conflict.

So to sum up:

I want normal ADSL using User Name/Password but MAC spoofed.

[billion_fan]

Not sure if that is possible, as there is no option under PPPOA for mac spoofing via the web gui.

[andyjrobinson]

Hi,

Spoofing the MAC under the current firmware for a PPPoA is not possible under the current firmware, probably because PPPoA doesn't require MAC address authentication, instead uses a username and password.

[admin]

7800N now supports Sky with beta firmware. Please check 7800N section on forum.